How Do You Make Everyone Feel Welcome in Business and at Work?

With the advent of the holiday hospitality season, how do you make both employees and customers (and prospective employees and customers) feel welcome year-round?

At minimum, for employees and customers, recommended welcoming activities include but are not limited to:

• Clean, well-lit, comfortable and well-supplied bathrooms
• Clean, well-lit and comfortable public areas, break-rooms and offices
• Water coolers and/or fountains (extra credit for free / fresh coffee and tea)
• Starting and ending meetings on time
• Returning emails, phone calls, etc. within 24 hours; ideally, the same day
• Authentically saying “thank you”
• Authentically apologizing for errors and quickly fixing them
• Early / frequent communication before the general public
• Clear guidelines on how to earn incentives / rewards based on performance
• Short periodic service delight surveys and timely communication of survey results
• Engaging them face-to-face by asking how they’re doing, and if they need anything
  • One-on-one and/or via focus groups / roundtable meetings with organization leadership
• Saying hello as they enter the building, and wishing them a great night as they depart the building.

Additional welcoming activities for both employees and customers include but are not limited to:

• Loyalty discounts
• Schedule flexibility
• Communal areas with comfortable seats
• Complimentary snacks
• Pet-friendly facilities with good boundaries for all
• Free logo swag (shirts, hats, water bottles, pens, etc. – a personal favorite of mine to give and receive)
  • Other free giveaways
• Special family events
• Special networking events
• Professional and/or self-development activities
• Onsite time-saving convenience services for one-stop task accomplishment, e.g. dry cleaning, etc.

How else do you make everyone (employees and customers; prospective employees and customers alike) feel welcome in business and at work?